


and there was an empty seat where you should be

by cherrykirsch



Category: Kamen Rider Build
Genre: Anger, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Comfort, Crying, F/M, Goodbyes, Introspection, Melancholy, Self-Sacrifice, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-15 15:47:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13616568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrykirsch/pseuds/cherrykirsch
Summary: Sento hasn't come home in a while.Misora finds comfort and a home in Banjou's arms. One day, he'll leave her too.





	and there was an empty seat where you should be

Misora has gotten used to falling asleep to the sound of Banjou's breathing.

It's warm, against the back of her neck, even and comforting, like the arms curling around her waist, pulling her close to his body. Like he's afraid she'll get up and leave him to sleep alone one day. Like he's afraid of letting go. Sometimes, his breathing picks up and he wakes up crying into the back of her night dress— and Misora wakes and wipes his tears away with her thumbs, whispers soothing words and strokes his hair until he hiccups himself back to sleep and buries his face into her. Other times, it remains shaky and awake, and he plays with her hair and sings to her softly until she falls asleep, and, when she wakes she knows he hadn't slept at all.

Most times, neither of them sleep. They stay awake and worried, plagued with memories they want rid off.

 _People leave_.

Sento hasn't come home in days.

It was an argument between him and Banjou, and Misora wished she had interjected, tried to get them both to calm down; but Sento stormed away and it was her, Banjou and Sawa until Sawa left as well. And then it was just her and Banjou, how it always seemed to end up these days, and Misora didn't eat that night no matter how much Banjou tried to tempt her. She crawled into bed, fall asleep and called out Sento's name when she woke up sobbing, her arms reaching for his familiar form.  
They found the unfamiliar weight of someone else, recoiled, and she cried Sento's name again until the increasingly familiar arms gathered her up in them and held her close, rocking her gently against him as she sobbed and clutched to the front of his shirt. When she calmed down, she pulled him into bed with her, held him tight against her like a stuffed toy and listened to his heartbeat— she didn't wake up crying anymore, and, when she sleeps, she sleeps through the night.

So, why is she awake now?

Her eyes are bleary and filled with the haze of sleep, and she blinks through it, sits up and looks around the room, pats around the bed for Banjou's body, finding only faint warmth, and she starts to panic.

 _His clothes aren't folded at the end of the bed_. She gets up and pads to the winding staircase.

 _The Sclash Driver is gone_. Her feet chill on the cold metal steps.

"Banjou?" Misora asks quietly and Banjou starts from his place by the front door, but doesn't turn to her. "Where are you going?"

Banjou makes a small noise. "To find Sento." He says. "I'm going to end this war."

"You can't do it on your own." She tells him and Banjou growls lowly.

"Well, I sure as hell can try."

She thinks. "You don't know where he is," she says. "He could be anywhere."

Banjou shoves his feet into his shoes. "Then I'll find him and we'll go together." he replies.

Misora presses her lips into a thin line and walks around the counter, because she doesn't want to be behind that counter again, or alone in the basement. She never wants to be alone again. "You'll get yourself killed." She says and when Banjou shrugs her heart drops.

"If that what it takes to end all of this." Banjou says, he gives her a half-wave. "I'm leaving now."

She crosses the room in five quick strides and catches the sleeve of his jacket before he can storm off to wherever he wants to go. He looks down at her with no intention of shaking her off, and she meets his eyes defiantly. "You can't." She says, and it comes out bratty and entitled, despite how hard she tried to make it not sound like that. "You can't go like this."

"Like what?" He asks.

"Angry." She says.

Banjou scowls down at her. "I'm not angry." He tells her, finally moves a hand to try and pry her vice like grip from the silk sleeve of his bomber jacket. She holds tight and he growls, frustrated, and gives up.

Misora eyes him carefully. "Yes, you are." She tells him.

"I'm not." Banjou insists, eyebrow twitching.

She scowls right back at him and tightens her grip on his jacket, follows him as he takes a step back towards the door. "You are." She insists. "Just look at you. There's steam practically overflowing from your ears."

"I'm not in the mood, Misora." Banjou says through grit teeth, clenching his hands into fists and closing his eyes before he finally manages to pull her hand from his jacket. "Just leave it. Leave me alone."

"And I'm not in the mood either, Ryuuga." Misora quips back. "You're acting like you don't matter. You're acting like you want to be alone."

Banjou's eyes snap open and he glares furiously down at her. "I do want to be alone." He says lowly, dangerously. "I want to be alone. I don't want to be around you anymore. So just leave it, okay? Leave me alone and go away."

Misora pretends like the words don't hurt her, make her heart ache, and glares back at him. "There you go again," she says, throwing her hands in the air. "Saying things you don't mean because you're angry and you've lost your head in it. You're like a headless chicken."

Banjou roars at her, takes a clenched fist and slams it into the wall next to him as Misora flinches, eyes the blue fire and electricity surrounding his fist because of the Dragon Fullbottle clutched in it carefully. "Just shut up!" He screams at her, and when he takes a step towards her, she steps back. Fear clawing up her throat to stop the words coming it out as he backs her up against a table, gets so close that she can feel the warmth of his breath fanning her cheek. "Are you happy now? Are you satisfied?" He asks her, and while her mouth opens to reply to say, ' _No, no, I'm not_.', nothing passes from her lips but shallow gasps. "Is this what you wanted?"

Misora tries to speak, and swallows down her words. She turns her head to her feet. "H-How..." She begins, her mouth dry. "How could you ask me something like that?" She finally manages, the words nothing but a whisper.

"Because you did this to me." He says.

And, _Ouch_ , that hurt. The words scald her like she's just spilt hot tea on her arms, pierce her skin like a knife that just keeps on digging into her flesh.

"You did this to yourself." Misora says.

The room falls silent and, slowly, Misora looks up. Banjou looks furious, his mouth open and eyes filled with a fire that's purely meant to burn her in the end; and she knows that she's made a mistake.

"Do you think I wanted this?" He asks slowly, his voice dangerously low, but Misora doesn't think that he wants her to answer him. "Do you think I wanted to be caught up in this freaking messed up game of cat and mouse? Do you think I want to fight again after what happened to Kasumi? Do you think I enjoy doing this?" His voice is steadily increasing in volume and Misora take in a shaky breath. "Beacause, newsflash- I don't! This isn't enjoyable for me, in fact, the last thing I want to be doing right now is going to fight a needless war. I didn't ask to be experimented on; I didn't ask for this, Misora!"

"I didn't ask for this either, Banjou!" Misora screams right back and Banjou stops, his chest heaving, to stare at her as she chokes back tears. "I didn't ask for this power. For my father to leave me-- if he's even my real father. I didn't ask to be left, to live a life of refuge inside a stuffy basement where all I'm good for is purifying bottles that always end up falling into the wrong hands. I didn't ask for this. I don't want it." She stands up straighter and jabs Banjou in the middle of his chest, pushing him backwards a few inches. "I didn't ask to be Faust's disposables either."

Misora stares at him a moment longer, her bottom lip wobbling before she draws in a breath and begins to sob into her hands. Taking a step back when Banjou moves towards her.

He stops, his arms outstretched and stays like that for a minute, watching Misora's sobs quiet into sniffs and gasps before he allows them to go limp at his sides. "Are you afraid?" He asks and Misora nods. "What of?"

"You." Misora says into her hands and Banjou goes silent. "You're scary when you get angry."

"I'd never hurt you." He says.

Misora sniffs. "I know."

"I'm sorry." Banjou tells her.

She dries her eyes with her sleeve. "I provoked you." She says. "Don't apologise."

"I made you cry."

"You're not the only one who's made me cry." She says and she meets Banjou's eyes with a wobbly smile.

Banjou shuffles a little on his feet, quickly avoids her gaze. "I still feel bad."

Misora shakes her head again and Banjou goes quiet, his hands clenching and unclenching periodically, as if he's waiting for something to grab and hold on to before he takes several wide steps away from her. Suddenly, the distance and silence between them feels too wide, like an ocean that they can't quite row across and Misora's heart sinks in her chest, guilt squeezing at her chest as she wraps her arms around herself, takes a hesitant half-step in Banjou's direction.

"Do you mean it?" She asks and Banjou looks up, curious. "Do you mean what you said?"

Banjou raises an eyebrow. "About what?" he asks. The words suddenly feel too big and she struggles, kicks the floor with the toe of her slipper. "You can ask me, y'know? I'm not going to bite." He says and that's the thing; Misora's afraid that he is. That he'll find her worries stupid and the answers to them obvious, that he'll see this side of her instead of the one he's used to and decide that she's not the girl he wants anymore.

"That..." She begins, and she can't meet his eye so she looks down at the floor. "That you don't want to be around me anymore. That you want to be alone."

"Of course I didn't mean it." Banjou says with a small sigh. "I don't mean a lot of things I say. I'm sorry, that must've hurt you."

Misora shakes her head, clutches herself a little tighter. "It's fine."

 _It isn't_.

"No, it isn't." Banjou says.

 _Shit_.

Carefully, Banjou steps towards her, his arms outstretched for her, pausing every time she shuffles backwards a little. "I'm sorry." He says again and then he hesitates. "Can I hold you?"

Misora peers up at him, bites her lips and takes tiny steps towards his outstretched arms until he's directly in front of him, their toes almost touching. Then she sighs and leans forward to hug Banjou around the middle, resting her forehead on the middle of his chest as his arms reach around to tug her closer to his body, pulling her flush against him. She sniffs, feels everything bubbling up to the surface again and gasps twice before she turns and starts crying into his shirt. Banjou lifts a hand from around her to stroke her hair softly, pressing gentle kisses to the top of her head.

By the time she peels herself from him, her face is red, blotchy and stiff, and it's all she can do to sniff and choke out tearless sobs into the air as she rests her chin on Banjou's shoulder, allowing him to brush her hair from her face and kiss her cheek.

"I'm sorry." She whispers.

Banjou hums softly and strokes her hair, pulls back to push it from her cheeks. "Why?" He asks.

"For being like this." Misora says, and her voice doesn't sound like her own. "For crying on you. For being scared."

"We all get scared." He tells her. 

Misora pushes herself away from him, clutches tighter at herself. "You can go now." She says, and it breaks her heart to say it. "I know you want to."

Banjou looks between the door and her. "Sento can wait until the morning," He tells her and he steps towards her to cup her face gently in his hands. "I don't want to leave you. I shouldn't leave you."

"' _Want_ ' and ' _Shouldn't_ ' are two very different things." She says, hardly stopping herself from leaning into him. "Which do you mean?"

He thinks for a moment before he pushes her fringe back from her forehead and press a kiss there. " _Want_." he mumbles against her skin. "I don't want to leave you."

 _But he will some day_.

Misora pulls back to rest her forehead against Banjou's, syncing her breathing to his in an effort to calm herself down. "Okay." She says, trying to force herself to believe it.

"Come on," he says gently, lacing his fingers with hers. "Lets go to bed."

That night, she finds a home in Banjou's arms. One that is not the same four walls of the basement and the cafe above her, but one that holds her so carefully and warmly, fills her with the same comfort she feels around Sento and how she used to feel around Soichi. She dreams that she's lying in a field of beautiful flowers, and only realises that there's someone with her when the warm weight in her hand moves it's fingers to pluck a flower from beside them, tuck it in her hair. When she wakes, she feels content and happy, despite the empty spot on the bed next to her.

A can of coffee greets her when she goes up into the cafe, and she sits and drinks it alone, two empty seats either side of her.

 _People may leave_.

The door behind her opens and Banjou steps through with a firm grip of Sento's sweater. Misora leaps from her seat to embrace them both in a hug, feeling warm when their arms curl around, tug her so close that she won't be able to escape from them until they decide that it's time to let her go. It feels nice. It feels like home.

 _But the best people always come back_.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: [ cherry-kirsch ](cherry-kirsch.tumblr.com) || twitter: [ cherriwrites ](https://twitter.com/cherriwrites)


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